Burn ban declared

Tuesday

Jun 17, 2008 at 12:01 AM

By Candace Cooksey Fulton - Brownwood Bulletin

Brown County Commis-sioners voted to put a county burn ban in place at their 9 a.m. meeting Monday, acknowledging conditions were right throughout the county for fires to get started and get out of control “very quickly.”

Within two hours of the meeting, just such a fire was raging in the southeastern part of the county, and three of the commissioners who are volunteer firefighters in their precincts were out to assist with fighting it.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Steve Adams asked the burn ban be put back in place, saying he was not asking for the strictest ban that would prohibit welding and other occupational situations.

“I think it would be best if we could eliminate any kind of open burns,” Adams said. “We’ve been lucky so far, considering what’s happened in Coleman and Callahan counties where there’s been some major fires.”

Anyway, Adams joked, “Seems like when we’ve approved these bans before, it’s rained very soon after we did. I don’t think anyone would mind if that happened.”

The standard burn ban disallows any and all controlled brush burns and requires trash burning be done in screen-covered containers. Commissioners voted on a fireworks ban last week that prohibits the sale or launch of certain aerial fireworks, specifically, “missiles with fins and rockets on sticks.”

In other business Monday, commissioners will allow a Fourth of July fireworks show at Flat Rock.

“Flat Rock’s got water on three sides and on the fourth side, they’ll have fire trucks that would control things if a fire did start,” said Precinct 4 Commissioner Larry Tra-week.

Asked by Brown County Judge Ray West what kind of fireworks were planned, Traweek responded, “The kind that shoot.” And when asked when the show would be, Traweek said, “The Fourth of July. I believe that’s a Friday.”

The traditional Lake Brownwood fireworks display is scheduled for July 5.